Teachers' Room
>
Lesson Library
>
Browse Library

Food

Bug Off?
Trying new foods. This lesson is centered around different articles about bugs as a food. Australians can buy chocolate-covered bugs and cricket lollipops. Germans bored with food crowded into a restaurant in Berlin to try insects, but people in Belgium aren't too sure.(Restaurants and unusual menus, reading in detail, true or false, discussion, some/any, much/many and ordering a hamburger.)Elementary

Lots of Hot Dogs!
Every year the world hot dog eating competition is held in New York. (World records, hot dogs, food, competitive eating, expressions of quantity.)Elementary Lesson Updated: 3 October 2016

Healthy Vegetables
In school cafeterias with vinyl banners depicting vegetable superhero characters, more young children take vegetables from the salad bar. Also, the next time you're whipping up dinner you may want to boil, steam or stir-fry your vegetables. Read on to find out why. (Health, diet, fruit and vegetables, iron, linkers, contrast)
Intermediate

Rent a Chicken
A Pennsylvania husband and wife rent chickens to customers. They rent chickens to about 200 customers in 12 US states and also Ontario and Prince Edward Island in Canada. (Vocabulary, farming, where food comes from)Elementary

Lunching Billionaire Style
A bidder appears to have won lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett after bidding in a week-long auction on eBay Inc.'s Web site. As in previous years, the billionaire will host the winner and up to seven friends for lunch in either Omaha, Nebraska, where Buffett lives and works.(Charity auctions, business, brainstorming, finding the main idea, true or false, summarizing, peer editing, past perfect.)Intermediate

Fancy Lunches
When it comes to kids' lunches, we've come a long way from PB&J, an apple and a cookie in a brown paper bag. Beau Coffron packs his daughter's school lunches in stainless steel containers that cost at least $20 a pop. He apportions all of her food into little compartments, making cartoon characters like animal shapes out of the ingredients. (Kids' lunches, consumer issues, food.)Upper-Intermediate

Vending Machines
It's late, the shops are closed and you simply must have a roasted eggplant-and-ricotta sandwich, a cupcake, a bike helmet, a gold bar and an iced cappuccino. (Vending machines, true, false or not given, comprehension, pronouns, discussion, the passive.)Intermediate

Growing Food for the Needy
Surrounded by rows of kale and collard greens, Bill Shick ticks off statistics about yields and the man-hours it takes to harvest the leafy green vegetables to be given away by the Chester County Food Bank in its efforts to grow food for the needy. The fresh produce program gives low-sodium, low-sugar foods to the poorest Americans year-round.Advanced

A Drop of Wine
A flipped lesson: students should have done the Instant Workbook '(A Drop of Wine)' before doing this lesson. There is a printout at the end of the Instant Workbook which they will need to use in class. The great mystery of what may go down in wine annals as the crime of the century - the destruction of the equivalent of 80,000 bottles of a choice Sangiovese wine - may have been solved.Upper-Intermediate

You're Kidding Me!
First, there were the maid cafes and then there were cat cafes for cat lovers to play with cats while they sipped a cup of coffee. Now, there is a goat cafe. The cafe has a pair of friendly goats for customers to pet, play with and even take for walks through Tokyo's concrete jungle. (Cafes, animals, present continuous, planning a dream cafe)Pre-Intermediate

Not To Your Taste?
President Barack Obama likes burgers, hot dogs and such, but when it came time to answer a question about his favorite food, broccoli was the first word that sprang from his lips. Former American President George Bush Sr.'s famous dislike of broccoli might be put down to the fact that he could be a "supertaster". (Predicting using a headline, writing questions, summarizing the text, metaphors, writing a report, prepositions, future - will for predictions.)Intermediate

What's For Dinner
Anyone looking to expand their culinary horizons beyond steak and potatoes or spaghetti may find inspiration in a new app that provides recipes based on what is already stocked in the refrigerator. (New apps for computers, cooking and food, will + infinitive used for future.)Upper-Intermediate

Crazy For Coffee
These days, when you are walking along the streets of southern Seoul, you are just as likely to smell the fragrance of fresh-brewed coffee as that of kimchi or more traditional Korean foods and a specially frothy kind of milk from New Zealand, great for cappuccinos. (Coffee drinking, business, Korea, Starbucks, role play: running a cafe).Intermediate

Eat Your Vegetables!
Japanese coaches are telling a Japanese table tennis player to eat more vegetables before the London Olympics. (Koki Niwa, sport, diet, vegetables, the Olympics, quantifiers.)Elementary

Dining Tips
We all indulge in less-than-perfect behavior in private but dining politely should be second nature - or should at least appear to be - if you are seeking to impress the boss or potential client. Here are some top tips to ensure social and business success at the table. (Business, table manners, dos and don'ts of dining, spaghetti eating.)Intermediate

Welcome To Clone Farm
To the untrained eye, Pollard Farms looks much like any other cattle ranch. Similar looking cows huddled in similar looking pens. But some of the cattle here don't just resemble each other. They are literally identical - clear down to their genes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of food from clones and their offspring, stating the products are indistinguishable from their non-clone counterparts. (Cloning, degrees of certainty, second conditional.)Advanced

Truck Stops
American diners are buying food from food trucks. Every Thursday night Lonnie Bishop and Lisa Case pay $5 for fancy hot dogs from a red food truck parked outside their favorite wine shop in Los Angeles. The new food trucks sell interesting and unusual food such as tacos with Korean barbecue meat, sushi, cupcakes. "I've eaten all over the world in three-star restaurants. I enjoy this...and I save a lot of money." (Eating habits, restaurants and food trucks, fast food, quantifiers.)Elementary

DIY
Britain's recession is making people try new things from bee-keeping to growing vegetables. One of the fastest growing is DIY butchery. (Occupations, shops, present continuous tense, state verbs, vocabulary extension.)Intermediate

The Gleaners
It's closing time at a market in Belleville, a working-class neighborhood in Paris, and a young woman in a black parka and white cap is rummaging through the abandoned crates. After a thorough inspection, she slips a cauliflower and some slightly squashed oranges into her shopping bag. "That's going to be my dinner," says the woman, who will only give her name as Yng. (Economic difficulty, scavenging for food, summarizing key points.)Upper-Intermediate

World's Largest Lesson 2008
This lesson looks at two problems: the prevalence of landmines and the current global food crisis. Countries with landmines have problems rehabilitating victims and being able to use land for farming. Commodity prices have soared recently and poorer people in many places are going hungry because the basic things they need to survive have become so expensive. There are four different articles so if possible allocate each student in your class to read a different article.Intermediate

Trim the grocery bill, not nutrition
Food prices, fuel costs and economic fears are growing, but that doesn't mean you can't eat healthfully while on a recession diet. Feeding yourself and your family on a budget can still include nutritious lean protein, fruits and vegetables in your diet every day... It just requires an open mind and a bit of extra time. (Nutrition, health, shopping and cooking, must/ must not/ should/ should not/ have to.)Upper-Intermediate

Kid Food
Most food products aimed specifically at children have poor nutritional content even though more than half of the products are marketed to the contrary. (Nutrition, food for children, consumer issues, will for future forms.)Intermediate

No cake
Children in a New Zealand school must not bring birthday cakes to school because of rules for healthy eating. (Diet, children, birthdays, true or false questions, giving an opinion.)Elementary

Restaurants Try E-menus
Restaurants in Europe, the United States and Japan are testing technology to let diners order their food direct from a screen at their table instead of depending on a fellow human being to note their choice, (Restaurants, technology, consumer trends, will and be going to for predictions.)Intermediate

Urban Foragers
Eating locally means different things to different people, but to urban foragers it can literally mean eating close to home. You may not realize it, but a wealth of healthy -- and free -- food may be growing just outside your front door. (Foraging in urban settings, eating locally grown food, restaurants, scanning, completing a table, comprehension, idioms using fruit and vegetables.)Advanced

Big and Beautiful Cappuccinos
Jack Hanna is the world champion of coffee art--using the froth on your cappuccino to make pictures. The man from Sydney beat the Italians in the World Latte Art Champions and an Italian barman made a 330-gallon cappuccino, setting what he said was a world record. (Coffee, world records, spelling, prepositions.)Elementary

Hot Chopsticks
A high school in Japan is going to have a chopstick test in its entrance exams. The test will take ten minutes and students will use chopsticks to move things like marbles and dice from one plate to another. (Discussion, be going to, completing a summary, reading for meaning, brainstorming.)Elementary

Thin is Not In
Fancy canapes and champagne have become rarer, guest-lists smaller and celebrities tougher to find in the front rows of some fashion shows these days and underweight models from fashion shows banned to stop teenagers from starving themselves. (Role-models, fashion and fashion shows, eating disorders, matching information, jigsaw reading, future forms--will and be going to for future decisions and intentions.)Intermediate

Disappearing Fish
The world's fish and seafood populations will collapse by 2048 if current trends in habitat destruction and overfishing continue, resulting
in less food for humans. In Japan fish is a cherished delicacy. Two articles that look at overfishing and the popularity of fish in Japan. (Depletion of fish stocks, conservation, eating seafood, survey, scanning, true or false, prepositions, brainstorming, first conditional.)Upper-Intermediate

Tomatina Festival
Every year thousands of people pelt each other with 100s of tons of ripe tomatoes in the normally quiet Spanish town of Bunol. See you there !!!! (Spain, tomatoes, festivals, third conditional)
Intermediate

Food For Stairs
People who eat fruit, vegetables and dairy foods may not have problems with walking or climbing stairs when they are old. (Healthy diets, foods, old age, mobility, discussion, true or false, comprehension, possessive adjectives, questionnaire.)Elementary

The Humble Potato
Max tells us about the history of the words to do with potatoes.Intermediate

A Healthy Diet?
A Mediterranean diet high in olive oil, nuts, fish and fresh fruits and vegetables may help prevent heart disease and strokes, says a large study from Spain. (Healthy diets, food vocabulary, reading for the main idea, scanning, true or false, crossword puzzle, What Is It?, countable and uncountable nouns game.)Pre-Intermediate

Safe Food
A plastic tag could soon stop people worrying about whether food has gone bad and isn't safe to eat. (Freshness of food and a new invention, vocabulary, discussion, comprehension, sequencing, true or false, the suffix -ness, word find puzzle, word order exercise and interview.)Elementary

Healthy Tea
A tea lover has released a book on throwing tea parties. A study of over 3,400 adults in Saudi Arabia - a country of tea-lovers - found that people who drank more than 6 cups of tea per day had a more than 50% lower risk of coronary heart disease compared to tea abstainers. (Benefits of drinking tea, survey, true or false, meanings in context, completing information, headlines, role play.)Upper-Intermediate

Coffee - A Complex Brew
Angela Holder does not swallow her coffee at work. In scenes redolent of a wine-tasting session, she slurps it, swishes it around her mouth and noisily spits it out. She 'cups' coffee. (Coffee tasting, coffee market, coffee, Make a choice Game, coffee knowledge quiz, reading for the main idea, multiple choice questions, reading about a process, Talking about coffee or tea Game, descriptive writing, finishing an ad.)Advanced

Blind Date"Blind restaurant an eye-opener for London diners." Dining in a completely dark room, unaware what's on your plate while sitting next to a complete stranger may not sound like an ideal restaurant experience but it's certainly an intriguing way to spend a rainy night in London. (food, five senses)
Intermediate

Business Travelers Can't Afford to Skip Breakfast
Corporate travelers need to be alert and ready to deal from the moment they wake up. So, skipping breakfast is not recommended, nutritionists say. (Business travel, business culture, importance of breakfast, nutrition, quiz, reading for the main idea, reading and comparing, finding ideas, functional language - ordering from a menu, apologizing and greeting, summarizing, dialogue, find someone who...)Upper-Intermediate

Cutlery
Max takes us through the knife, fork and spoon words of history!Intermediate

Fishy Milk?
Some landlocked Canadian cows are enjoying a little seafood with their hay and grain so they can produce a new kind of milk being touted for its benefits for the brain, eyes and nerves. (Modified foods, diet, fish, nutrition, discussion, comprehension, meanings in context, true or false, prepositions, design a poster, dialogue build.)Intermediate

These Music Lovers Are Turkeys
Britain's farming union has released a chill-out album of different sounds to help turkeys keep calm in the understandably stressful run-up to being eaten. (Farming, animals, meat, scanning, true or false, working out unfamiliar words, summarizing, Farm Animal Sounds Game, Completing a Picture game, zero conditional, discussion.)Intermediate

Urban Oz Insects
Millions of giant moths swoop down on Australian cities each spring. Called bogongs, they like the big city lights, where they flutter into high-rise offices, drown in bowls of soup, pester bus drivers, even freeze to death in refrigerators. (Insects, pests, sorting words, finding the main idea, true or false, complete the table, meanings in context, verbs: active or passive voice, present simple or past simple tense, dialogue building, peer dictation, crossword.)Intermediate

Breakfast Study
A new study suggests young adults may be less attentive in school when they skip breakfast. (Nutrition, importance of breakfast, nutritional needs of boys and girls, survey, understanding the main idea, matching sentence beginnings and endings, multiple choice questions, pairwork - talking about meals and performance in tests, sharing information game, frequency adverbs, countable and uncountable nouns and expressons of quantity.)Pre-Intermediate

Could You Mime That?
At the Cafe Signes in Paris, the staff wear beaming smiles, the service is faultless and there is no yelling from the kitchen. But if you want something to eat or drink, you are going to have to work out how to mime it -- most of the staff are deaf. (Finding the main idea, reading for specific information, comprehension, guessing meanings of words from context, true or false, role play, discussion, collocation.)Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate

Something's Cooking for Career Changers
Lisa Poulos loved the frenetic pace of her job as assistant to a top executive at a Manhattan financial firm, but she quit her job and enrolled in Manhattan's French Culinary Institute where she could learn cooking and baking skills. (Cooking, career changes, comprehension, guessing meanings of words from context, summarizing, food and cooking vocabulary, bar and line graph work, matching words game, reading an interview.)Upper-Intermediate